I successfully defeated evan in our SPL All-Star week match today (sorry we were late) in a special twist format: Kanto Cup. Kanto Cup, for those who don't know, is a GBU singles (bring 6, pick 3; item clause ON) style tournament that Japan is hosting this month where trainers can only use RBY pokemon (except Mew and Mewtwo). Being that evan and I still have to play RBY for real in the second half of SPL and also that RBY UU, while fine, is not really any more exciting or interesting than OU or Ubers, we agreed to take RBY into the present day and do a best of 3 in Kanto Cup format. We thought this would be a more interesting approach because this isn't really a metagame anyone actively plays… meaning, these teams were solely on us to create from the unknown and based only on our best guess as to what the other might try to do.

I won 2 games to 0 in our best of three. However, evan and I are apparently really bad at using PO and did not save logs of either match. evan did a pretty good job at recapping the actual events of the battles here so I'll go through my team and just provide some reasoning for why I picked what I did for those battles.

Basically, I started thinking I wanted to use sun, since it's the only available auto weather, so Ninetales got a spot along with a tentative Chlorophyll mon. Was Eggy but I realized Venusaur was cooler and also that it was faster. I was thinking of keeping in the theme of sun but then realized that this format was basically Battle Subway with RBY mons, so I changed direction completely and filled in the rest of the team with pokemon I knew, and have used, in the Subway before, and based their move sets on what I needed. I figured Snorlax might get used (and I was right) so I went with a Bulk Up Machamp for extra insurance. Plus, I had used Bulk Up Machamp effectively in the WiFi train and liked its style. Dragonite is standard Subway affair, probably should have Earthquake for Eviolite Magneton but wanted some priority in case I had to go heads up with other Dragonite or Cloyster. Lum Berry obviously serving the double role of clearing confusion but also preventing sleep and such (remember, no sleep clause on GBU). Chansey and Cloyster are both super boring. So, back to Ninetales and Venusaur… by the time I filled out the rest of the roster, I realized I didn't want to use sun at all but brought it anyway for the team preview aspect. Don't ask about Wide Lens.. Venusaur, though, I did have a plan for once I decided to move away from sun: I would use it as a secondary counter to Snorlax and Chansey and other random things. Turned out to be a good choice. Chesto Berry was to combat rival Chlorophyll users by setting a Sub or sleeping them back should the need arise. Don't ask about the EV choices there, I have no idea what I was doing...

I chose Venusaur, Chansey and Cloyster in our first match because Aerodactyl scared me a bit and so I thought I could either sleep it, use counter on it, or Icicle Spear it. Hypno was a good mon to choose on evan's part but was another factor in me bringing Chansey. Cloyster did get lucky on Snorlax, so that was cool, though I knew I had Sub Venusaur in my back pocket.

Battle two I chose Dragonite thinking I might see his own Venusaur and also to hit Hypno a lot harder... Chansey was obviously not effective against Nasty Plot. Machamp was for better reaction against Snorlax and Cloyster was last, though I didn't need it.

So yeah, hope you enjoyed our little side metagame.. I know I did. Bragging rights until we meet again, evan ;)